COLUMN: Community partners resolve to take a stand against teen pregnancy

By Chris Dobbins

Published: Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 04:15 PM.

Then came Gaston Youth Connected (GYC), a community-based teen pregnancy prevention initiative from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina. Funded with a $5.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, GYC set the ambitious goal of reducing teen pregnancy in Gaston County by 10 percent by 2015. They have worked tirelessly with community partners and helped fund the Health Department’s four Teen Wellness Centers – places where teens can get free or low-cost confidential services including pregnancy tests, birth control, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

One of the most important features of our Teen Wellness Centers is the services of our Teen Health advocates. These health educators work one-on-one with teens who have questions – about their bodies, the risks of being sexually active, and whether the stories about sexual behavior they’ve heard from their friends, or seen online, are true. These passionate professionals offer sound, accurate information and build relationships with our teen patients, so they will feel confident asking questions in the future.

This combination of efforts has had great results in Gaston County. In November, we learned our teen pregnancy rates hit record lows for the second consecutive year. In fact, Gaston’s teen pregnancy rates have already fallen more than 10 percent, with more than two years left in the GYC project.

But there’s work left to do. Our rates are still higher than the state’s, and more kids are reaching their teen years every day. Our work will never end, but it is worthwhile and important work.

Every Gaston County teen deserves to have access to affordable, quality, confidential reproductive care. Every Gaston County teen deserves access to accurate, understandable information about their bodies and the risks of sexual activity. Every Gaston County teen deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential. That’s why we at the Gaston County Health Department take a stand against teen pregnancy.

But we can’t do it alone – and we don’t do it alone. These results are being brought about not only by the Health Department and by Gaston Youth Connected, but by the scores of community partners who help us do this work – the education community, the faith community, youth-serving organizations, parents, and responsible teens themselves all deserve credit for taking a stand against teen pregnancy.

Won’t you take a stand with us? For ideas on how you can help us address this challenging issue, please visit the Teen Wellness Center on Facebook and Twitter (@TWCGaston).

This month, we at the Health Department have been talking about something we do year-round – taking a stand against teen pregnancy.

If you follow the Health Department or our programs on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve seen the photos of staff and community members holding signs about why and how they take a stand against teen pregnancy.

For public health professionals, the reason is simple – pregnancy can block the path between teens and success. Finishing high school, getting a good job, going to college, making ends meet and becoming a healthy and balanced person are all much harder for a teen who is pregnant or parenting.

On top of that, the risks grow. Pregnancy increases a teen’s chances of living in poverty and their odds of not finishing school or reaching their full potential. In short, making good things happen gets harder, which allows bad things to happen more easily.

Teen pregnancy is an epidemic in Gaston County; that’s why our Board of Health makes it a priority. In 2007, our teen pregnancy rate was 76.3 per 1,000 girls (ages 15-19). If you do the math, that equals about one in three girls in Gaston County getting pregnant before her 20th birthday. That rate was also substantially higher than North Carolina’s rate. And while many teens dedicate themselves to becoming outstanding parents, the effects of teen pregnancy have a lasting negative impact on the teen parents and their children.

Children of teen parents are more likely to be born prematurely and underweight, tend to suffer poorer health, are more likely to be abused or neglected, and tend to struggle more to develop their cognitive abilities. The children of teen parents are even more likely to be incarcerated.

A few years ago, we expanded our teen pregnancy prevention programming. We added evidence-based programs to help parents communicate their values about sex to their kids, help teens keep focused on their life goals and make smart choices about being sexually active, and help teen parents become successful, thriving adults.

Then came Gaston Youth Connected (GYC), a community-based teen pregnancy prevention initiative from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina. Funded with a $5.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, GYC set the ambitious goal of reducing teen pregnancy in Gaston County by 10 percent by 2015. They have worked tirelessly with community partners and helped fund the Health Department’s four Teen Wellness Centers – places where teens can get free or low-cost confidential services including pregnancy tests, birth control, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

One of the most important features of our Teen Wellness Centers is the services of our Teen Health advocates. These health educators work one-on-one with teens who have questions – about their bodies, the risks of being sexually active, and whether the stories about sexual behavior they’ve heard from their friends, or seen online, are true. These passionate professionals offer sound, accurate information and build relationships with our teen patients, so they will feel confident asking questions in the future.

This combination of efforts has had great results in Gaston County. In November, we learned our teen pregnancy rates hit record lows for the second consecutive year. In fact, Gaston’s teen pregnancy rates have already fallen more than 10 percent, with more than two years left in the GYC project.

But there’s work left to do. Our rates are still higher than the state’s, and more kids are reaching their teen years every day. Our work will never end, but it is worthwhile and important work.

Every Gaston County teen deserves to have access to affordable, quality, confidential reproductive care. Every Gaston County teen deserves access to accurate, understandable information about their bodies and the risks of sexual activity. Every Gaston County teen deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential. That’s why we at the Gaston County Health Department take a stand against teen pregnancy.

But we can’t do it alone – and we don’t do it alone. These results are being brought about not only by the Health Department and by Gaston Youth Connected, but by the scores of community partners who help us do this work – the education community, the faith community, youth-serving organizations, parents, and responsible teens themselves all deserve credit for taking a stand against teen pregnancy.

Won’t you take a stand with us? For ideas on how you can help us address this challenging issue, please visit the Teen Wellness Center on Facebook and Twitter (@TWCGaston).

Chris Dobbins is the director of the Gaston County Health Department. He can be reached at 704-853-5260 or chris.dobbins@co.gaston.nc.us. For information on the Teen Wellness Center, call 704-853-5009 or visit www.gastonpublichealth.org.